Schools remained closed in a dozen provinces, ferry and fishing activities were halted in many regions and twenty some civilian flights were suspended today, in addition to the 56 yesterday.
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Civil defence officials said they were checking reports of additional deaths in isolated areas but were struggling to confirm new casualties due to “communication issues” caused by the storm. Typhoon Melor with maximum winds as strong as 215 kph made landfall, the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane.
In Albay, about 590,000 residents were evacuated as a precaution, including tens of thousands from around Mount Mayon volcano, where volcanic mudflows are an added threat, the national council said.
The storm passed along the northern edge of the central Philippine island of Samar, which was one of the areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, when storm surges leveled communities and killed more than 7,000 people.
“Rainfall is expected to be heavy to intense, but so far we have not had reports of that”, Marshall said in an email.
Huge waves crashed into the city’s deserted boulevard as palm trees swayed amid strong winds.
Typhoon Nona (international name: Melor), has weakened slightly and is now over the South China Sea. We shut all establishments.
Floodwaters rose sharply throughout elements of Mindoro on Tuesday night time, forcing residents to climb onto the roofs of their houses, in accordance to Alfonso Umali, governor of Oriental Mindoro province on the japanese half of the island which has a complete inhabitants of 1.2 million.
A satellite image of Typhoon Melor over the Philippines.
Cold north-east monsoon winds are expected to weaken the typhoon this morning into a severe tropical storm, then into a tropical depression tomorrow.
Authorities were assessing Melor’s damage while bracing for another typhoon brewing east of Mindanao, the country’s main southern island, said NDRRMC spokeswoman Mina Marasigan.
The region has equipped itself to handle storms and typhoons well, particularly since the average number of storms and typhoons tearing their way through the Philippines is twenty each year.
Albay has become a model for disaster preparedness after recording zero casualties from Typhoon Hagupit last December due to prompt evacuations.
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The Philippines experiences about 20 typhoons a year, with majority occurring towards the end of the year.
